The FCA has secured a confiscation order against the illegal money lender, Dharam Prakash Gopee, in the sum of £5,118,018.72.
The order, made on 11 December 2019 at Southwark Crown Court, will see the confiscation of all Gopee’s criminal proceeds as an illegal money lender, while he was also ordered to pay almost £230,000 in compensation to consumers.
Gopee was convicted of illegal money lending and sentenced to three and a half years imprisonment in February 2018.
The lender was found guilty of illegally loaning money to vulnerable consumers at high rates and securing the loans against their properties. He sought to take possession of the properties if the consumers failed to repay their loans.
The FCA announced that if he does not pay the confiscation and compensation orders on time, Gopee is liable to spend a further 11 years in prison. He is also subject to a travel ban preventing him from leaving the UK until the orders are paid.
FCA executive director of enforcement and market oversight, Mark Steward, commented: “Gopee’s offending has caused substantial harm to vulnerable consumers. He has defied court orders in continuing to offend in one of the worst cases of contempt of court seen by the FCA.
“Together with his jailing, this order seeks to deprive him of all his ill-gotten gains and to compensate victims. He runs the risk of a very significant additional jail term if he fails to comply with these orders.”
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